I slept most of the day away, which is a good thing - I seriously needed the rest.

I had planned to be up at the Swingin' Door around 7:00pm, so I had time to work on the various issues I've had in the past. I made it there just before 8:00pm.

Granted, I didn't need to start until 9:00pm, but still.

In fact, what with various last-minute problems, like having my workaround for the video cable fail, and needing to run an extra cable through a crowd, I wasn't able to get started until about 9:20pm.

And then I had to deal with the owner all night. First of all, telling me I'm having feedback issues as I'm trying feverishly to figure out what to do about my feedback issues? Not so useful.

Suggesting that you'll turn up the sound in the back if I'll turn down the sound to my speakers? Useful.

Later complaining that the sound output from my system isn't as loud as you then expected? Not so useful.

Even later going on about how the customers would have preferred my speakers louder? Ummm, dude, I was trying that. You suggested I turn them down.

Telling me at the end of the night - and mostly under the prompting of the regular KJ - that most KJs set up their right-hand speaker in a different part of the room? Infuriating. You know why I didn't put it there? Because it took up more of your room real estate, and I didn't think you'd approve. And still, one would think that on one of the other three times I'd done the show, you could have said something. But no.

Coming up while I'm trying to get at least one singer on the list to come up to the mic, and complain that there's no background music? Fuck you. I was having enough trouble making myself heard as it was. And ya haven't said anything about background music any of the other times I've done this either, have ya, Sparky?

Meanwhile, there was a large group (US Airways. And large in more than one way...) having a Christmas party, and every time one of them came up to sing, the rest of the group would join them.

So I started getting complaints on the order of "they've been up five times for every time I've sung."

Sigh. It's difficult to explain one's rotation philosophy at the best of times. For one thing, most people just assume it's obvious. For another, once they've worked themselves up into a nice bit of righteous indignation, they don't want to put it aside. Then there's alcohol.

But to make things worse, last night I was just not doing all that well on that whole "coherence" side of things. I could make announcements and such, but explaining myself was more than my poor cortex could handle.

Then I had douchebags tipping me whole dollars (wadded up so I couldn't see the denomination, of course), so they or their friends could sing next. Then, of course, when I told them they'd be up, and started the song, they'd start looking for the friend that had to sing with them. A couple of times, I just started the damn track, and didn't exactly worry about whether any of them had a mic.

I made a grand total of $6 in tips.

There were some bright spots. Big Joe was there, and he's always a riot. And one group (Tie-eese (???), Stefanie, and their friends) were cute, fun, and quite reasonable singers. Actually, Stefanie had an amazing tat, which made for a good excuse to stare at her back. And Tommy (one of the bouncers) may not be the best singer on the planet, but he's got a very infectious enthusiasm.

But on the whole, the night was a bummer. One of those "why the hell don't I go back to software?" evenings. The money was decent, though.

If I am going to stay in the business, I need to find myself a decent-sized Friday or Saturday venue. Preferably one that doesn't scavenge what's left of my Thursday one. I think part of my issue here is that I was hoping I might end up inheriting this one, but, well... not so likely.

Ah well. I think I'll take my self-pitying ass to bed. I've got the temperature in here all the way up to a toasty 61°, so I should be nice and warm...

That is always a problem, everyone else thinks that they know what is best for any sound engineer, and they complain no matter what. I have screwed over some gigs to prove points to others that what they want to hear is not going to be all that nice, when compared to what we KNOW what we need to hear.

Well, honestly, I can't say that I was doing a stellar job. My usual tricks don't seem to be working.

The weirdest thing is the feedback through my announcement mic. All three of my mics are Sennheisers. Granted, they're cardiod, rather than hypercardiod, but they're all good, solid, directional mics.

I sit well behind both speakers, and further have them aimed so that they disperse away from the performance area.

And still, I get feedback from a handheld - and I'm not one of those that holds a mic at arms-length, either. The oddest thing was not being able to stand up. I could sit and announce, but I couldn't stand and fiddle with the mixer at the same time.

The place has low ceilings, and I suspect I should raise the speakers less. But even so, it's an odd situation.